Style Edit: Omega celebrates 60 years of space exploration with limited edition timepieces and historic reissues of the iconic Speedmaster, inspired by Nasa missions

South China Morning Post

7 days ago

Omega has long been the watchmaker of choice for those with an eye on the stars. The Swiss luxury watch brand's relationship with Nasa stretches back 60 years, to when the US space agency went looking for timepieces suitable for its astronauts to wear, and asked the world's top watchmakers to submit prototypes for some of the most rigorous testing imaginable. Only the Omega Speedmaster passed with flying colours.
Now, as these two pioneering organisations mark six decades of collaboration, a host of timepieces celebrate the partnership – and the spirit of daring extraterrestrial exploration.
Omega's Speedmaster was the only watch submitted to the US space agency that passed with flying colours. Photo: Nasa
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For those who want to reach for the moon, the Omega Speedmaster Moonphase Meteorite offers the opportunity to wear part of it on your wrist. The moonphase indication at 6 o'clock features two cabochon moons crafted from genuine pieces of moon meteorite, with a background that reflects the position of the stars in the night sky when Apollo 11 made its historic voyage in 1969. The dial is formed from iron meteorite – with a pattern of ribbonlike flecks that are unique to each piece – and coloured with either a black PVD or galvanic grey coating.
No watch celebrates the history of lunar exploration more profoundly than the Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch, the first timepiece to visit the moon. It's now available with a lacquered white dial, the colour inspired by astronauts' spacesuits and also originally used on the 1969 Alaska I watch, produced as a prototype for Nasa because of its excellent thermal reflectivity. It comes with black detailing and applied indexes, with the Speedmaster name picked out in red.
Astronaut Walter Schirra wore an Omega Speedmaster on board the Sigma 7 mission of Nasa's Mercury programme in 1962. Photo: Handout
Seven years before Apollo 11, in 1962, an Omega wristwatch had already been to space. Astronaut Walter 'Wally' Schirra wore his own Speedmaster ref. CK2998 on board the Sigma 7 mission of Nasa's Mercury programme, earning the watch the nickname it has kept ever since: the First Omega in Space. Today, it is available in a design that honours the 1959 original but with a state-of-the-art engine at its heart: the Coaxial Master Chronometer Calibre 3861.
Reverse of the First Omega in Space. Photo: Handout
The first space mission to orbit the moon, Apollo 8, received a fitting tribute half a century later in 2018, when Omega launched the Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon. It features a relief map of the heavenly body on its movement's main plate and bridges, with the view seen from Earth on the dial side and the fabled dark side on the reverse.
The Omega Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon features a relief map of the moon on the front and back of the watch. Photo: Handout
The latest version of this model comes with an even more exquisite relief of the moon, thanks to advanced laser engraving techniques and contrasting surfaces that make the features more pronounced.